


After All We've Been Through

by mysweetadeline



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysweetadeline/pseuds/mysweetadeline
Summary: Before he wakes up, he is dreaming. It was all a dream, is what he believes. And what a wicked dream it has been.Wake up, wake up now is what he tells himself, because this has been awful and god he’s so tired.When Thomas wakes up, there’s no one there, and the room is cold.Hard to say I'm sorry - Chicago





	After All We've Been Through

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit of a mess but I wanted to write one last Maze Runner fic that can describe Thomas's journey throughout the trials. It's my way of saying goodbye. Maybe I'll write for this fandom again one day, but not for a while. This fic is mainly based off the movies, however some parts are from the book, and I made some quote references to the series (including the Fever Code). 
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

When Thomas wakes up, there’s no one there, and the room is cold. 

 

He thinks he must be dreaming, and he berates himself  _ wake up, wake up now _ as the room spins around him. 

 

Except it’s not a room but a cage, steel bars locking him in as he surges upwards, away from the endless darkness and into the glare of the sun. 

 

(“The light at the end of the tunnel” is something Thomas never believed in, but they wiped that away too).

 

He retches acid, he hears the panicked squeal of a pig, and it’s not the room spinning but his head.

 

_ When was the last time I had a meal?  _ Thomas can’t remember, but then again,

 

(“You’re going to miss me, right?” he asked. He thought she’d smile but it never came.)

 

Thomas can’t remember anything.

  
  


It’s a stupid fight, but usually all fights between boys are.

 

Boys who are acting as grownups, boys who are playing at house, boys who are trying to be a society.

 

_ This one’s different, _ Thomas thinks, _ he doesn’t bother pretending like the rest. _

 

Gally’s fist meets his cheek and Thomas’s head meets the ground and he blacks out, just for a second, but a second is all it takes.

 

When Thomas wakes up, there is suddenly clarity.

 

(A single light bulb hung from the apartments drab ceiling.)

 

He is filled up with joy because finally,  _ finally _ something feels right, something feels  _ real. _

 

“Thomas,” he says, and suddenly everything is going to be okay.

 

(“Go on now,” the mother said to her son. “Go on, and be brave.”)

 

“My name is Thomas”.

 

He shouts it out, it’s a proud sound, and the others cheer. 

 

He feels this feeling of home.

 

(One of the men looked up at the dangling, buzzing light bulb. 

 

“Maybe we should call this one Thomas.”)

  
  


Everything hurt and the pain blinds him but in that moment, whether it was impulse or adrenaline, he knew he had to take the chance.

 

A dim room, familiar faces, screaming voices, a girl staring expectantly -he promised he wouldn’t- 

 

“Everything is going to change.”

 

When Thomas wakes up, he can still hear the screams.

 

There is a girl looming over him, her brows criss crossing in concern. 

 

She’s  _ the _ girl, and Thomas feels a seed of distrust planted. 

 

“We did this to them,” he says, his voice haunting his own ears. 

 

Her frown deepens.

 

“No,” Teresa says, her hair slipping from behind her ears, “No, that can’t be right.” 

 

(“Wicked is good,” her voice echoes in its certainty.) 

 

They lock eyes, brown to blue, and Thomas can almost detect something else there.

 

The seed grows. 

 

The walls are cement and the bedsheets are white and he feels selfish for feeling safe.

 

They’ve made it, they’ve won.

 

But it feels like a loss.

 

(“I swear Chuck,” he whispered, “I swear I’ll get you back home.”)

 

He’s exhausted, and a woman in a lab coat talks of sun flares, a sickness, and WICKED. 

 

Thomas barely hears. He lies down in his bed and sleeps. 

 

When Thomas wakes up, chaos has erupted. 

 

A man with the face of a rat calls himself Janson, and strolls around the room like he’s a god. 

 

As he scrutinizes each of them, he pauses on Thomas. 

 

(“Everything we’re doing is for a reason.”)

 

Thomas glares back, defiant. 

 

(“Someday we’ll be bigger.”)

 

“The Scorch,” Janson’s rat face breaks into a cold smile. 

 

They pack what they can and set off. 

  
  


As the liquor burns through him and the song rings in his ears, he finds himself and Brenda just inches apart, and her lips stretch up to meet his. 

 

They kiss, it’s sweet, but Thomas tastes something sour at the back of his throat. 

 

(“It was you and me, Tom.”)

 

He pulls back, his eyes guilt ridden.

 

“You’re not her. You could never be her.”

 

Everything dims to black.  

 

When Thomas wakes up, he is scared. 

 

The ground is grimy, his head is throbbing, and he can’t remember what -

 

_ Oh. _

 

Brenda’s mouth is taped, her hands are bound, but her eyes are burning like fire. 

 

Their captors talk with minimal slurs and abrupt laughs but in Thomas’s eyes, they’re past gone already. 

 

A crashing comes from below and Minho bursts through the doors with all the vigor and morale of a full blown knight. 

 

(“Greenie,” Minho said, if you think that was brave comin’ out here, listen up. You’re as good as dead, just like us.”)

 

(Thomas felt his face heat up. “I couldn’t just sit there and leave you guys out here.”)

 

Relief floods through Thomas and a bark of laughter escapes his mouth. 

 

They’re saved.

  
  


Strangely, it’s not it’s not the betrayal that stings, but the girl who did it. 

 

“What have you done?”

 

The open horror in his eyes and the bitter accusation in his voice makes Teresa’s lips tremble, just a little, but Thomas doesn’t care.

 

They put up a fight, a strong one too, but in the end it doesn’t matter. 

 

WICKED takes Minho away, and Thomas falls to his knees.

 

When Thomas wakes up, his hands are shaking from anger.

 

He lost Chuck, Teresa’s gone, and Minho is captured again.

 

Never could he understand Teresa’s motives, after everything WICKED has done to them, after everything they’ve been through and all the promises they made.

 

(“Pinky promise?”

 

She sat back. “Now hold on. That’s some serious stuff right there.”)

 

Thomas balls his hands in fist and bites his tongue to hold back the scream that’s trying to tear it’s way out of his throat. 

 

(What if I saved them? He thought.

 

What if I saved my friends?)

 

They need a plan. 

 

They need to move. 

  
  


Newt is dead. 

 

Newt, who was always there, always caring. 

 

(“Kill me. If you’ve ever been my friend, kill me.”)

 

His body lies on the ground. 

 

This is all Thomas could think about as he stumbles back to the place that started it all, like an immoral man searching for redemption. 

 

(“Please,” her voice cracks a little, “just, come back to me.”)

 

He finds himself face to face with the nefarious Ava Paige, who turns out to not actually be a bad person, just a person who was doing what she believed was right. 

 

She accepts defeat now, and offers to help. Thomas feels a streak of hope flash and -

 

_ Bang _ . 

 

Her immaculate white clothes turn red in the blink of an eye, and Thomas watches as his hope fall to the ground. 

 

Janson has the flare, and his feral eyes are the last thing Thomas sees. 

 

When Thomas wakes up, he feels the hopelessness sink in.

 

Teresa is there, her back to him, but he can tell she’s tense. 

 

“It’s your blood.” Janson’s wicked grin. 

 

“Now I can choose who lives.” 

 

Thomas’s heart sinks to the floor. 

 

But suddenly, Teresa becomes a blur of motion, and Janson is on the ground, unconscious. 

 

They try, they try so damn hard and Janson is dead, but they still don’t make it far.

 

The city is burning, the roof aflame. 

 

This is the end, they both know it, and Teresa’s guilt comes in volumes.

 

“I’m sorry.” she says through the smoke and tears, and Thomas knows she means it. 

 

The helicopter coming when it did was a miracle, and Teresa wastes no time. 

 

He’s on, he’s safe, he’s in the greatest pain of his life, but he reaches back for her, calls for her but - 

 

There’s no use.

 

(“It’s too late.”)

 

She’s gone. 

 

His world fades away. 

  
  


( _ Tom, I just triggered the ending. _ )

 

Before he wakes up, he is dreaming. It was all a dream, is what he believes. And what a wicked dream it has been. 

 

_ Wake up, wake up now _ is what he tells himself, because this has been awful and  _ god  _ he’s so tired. 

 

When Thomas wakes up, there’s no one there, and the room is cold.

  
_ (Paradise.  _ They’d come to paradise. He could only hope that one day his heart would feel the joy of the place.)


End file.
